SINGAPORE, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Gold dropped to a 2-1/2-weeklow on Monday, extending losses from the previous session, asinvestors fretted about uncertainty over Spain's bailout planand as surprisingly good U.S. data dented interest in gold.

FUNDAMENTALS * Spot gold fell to a 2-1/2-week low of $1,741.25 anounce before paring some losses to $1,743.19 as of 0048 GMT,down 0.6 percent from the previous close. * U.S. gold lost 0.8 percent to $1,745. * Spot silver dropped to a one-month low of $33.02. * Hedge funds and money managers have raised their goldfutures positions to their most bullish in nearly 16 months, amove traders tied to bullion's appeal as an inflation hedge amidhopes that the Federal Reserve and major central banks will keeppumping money to stimulate growth. * But better-than-expected U.S. consumer sentiment dataadding to recent encouraging signs from the economy, temperingbullion's appeal. * Uncertainty over Spain's bailout plan remains a majorconcern in the market. * China's exports grew at roughly twice the rate expected inSeptember while imports returned to the path of expansion,suggesting government measures to underpin economic growth areworking and additional policy action may not be needed for now.

* Attention will turn to China's inflation data, due at 0130GMT, which is likely to show that annual consumer priceinflation softened in September to near July's 2-1/2-year low,with producer prices set to record their steepest drop sinceOctober 2009. * Holdings of gold-backed exchange-traded funds slipped forthe second session straight to 74.979 million ounces on Oct. 11,but were close to the record of 75.03 million ounces hit earlierlast week. * For the top stories on metals and other news, click, or

MARKET NEWS * U.S. stocks wrapped up their worst week in four months,led lower on Friday by financial shares as results from WellsFargo and JPMorgan ignited concerns about shrinking profitmargins for big lenders. * Commodity currencies like the Australian dollar got off toa mildly positive start in Asia on Monday following anunexpectedly strong bounce in China's exports, while the eurowas little changed ahead of yet another summit in the euro zone.